ABSTRACT
Every year, the Swedish Association for Fire Officers (SBB) and the Swedish Fire Protection Association co-organize a national fire conference. The theme of the 2012 conference was When Words Become Action, and the aim was to illuminate the work of the Swedish rescue services with a particular focus on success factors for development. According to the conference call, a society in constant transformation, with new values and technological innovations, poses new challenges for the rescue services and their ability to develop and promote change. One such explicit ‘requirement’ for change is increased gender equality. The conference program also communicates that change in the rescue services, in general, is laden with organizational resistance. As a consequence, it was the means toward the goals that were in focus during the conference. In the present chapter, the emphasis is on the means toward an egalitarian and diverse rescue services organization. Just as in many, if not most, organizations, contradictory conceptions of gender equality (and diversity) as well as gender equality efforts that both promote and hinder a change in existing gender relations can also be located in the Swedish rescue services ( Jansson and Grip, 2012). Nevertheless, a common argument is that the rescue services are particularly unique as an organization and that gender equality has to be enhanced “in its own way and on its own terms”. What does that mean? Studies of gender equality in the Swedish rescue services are scarce, and scientific scrutiny of problem representations that surface “when words are to be turned into action” are therefore warranted and timely, in particular since previous research has shown that interpretations of gender equality and gender equality efforts tend to be adapted to suit the values that dominate the local context (Ekström, 2012; Jansson, 2010). Specifically, the present chapter deals with how a group of regionally based gender equality and diversity developers interpret a particular action program, the Action Program for Increased Gender Equality and Diversity in Municipal Safety Work issued by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (hereafter the MSB),1 which in turn aims to promote an egalitarian (and diverse) rescue services organization. My analysis is informed by Carol Bacchi’s (2009) critical form of policy analysis, and centers on how the ‘problem’ is formulated. Bacchi argues that policy suggestions
contain explicit or implicit diagnoses of what the problem is – a form of assessment of the state of things. This assessment is always performed on the basis of an interpretation, and results in a suggested solution, indicating what or whom it is that needs to change. Consequently, the overarching research question is formulated as follows: Which interpretations of gender equality are assumed to be central for the rescue services’ efforts to promote development and change?
